Top RNC aide quits, trashing Steele’s leadership

Here's something that won't help Michael Steele's bid to win a second term as chairman of the Republican National Committee: A top RNC aide quit Tuesday, accusing Steele of badly mismanaging the party and leaving the GOP in a weakened state ahead of 2012.

According to Politico's Jonathan Martin, Gentry Collins, the RNC's political director, sent a resignation letter to RNC members laying out in explicit detail all of the drama that has engulfed Steele's RNC tenure. Among other things, he accused Steele of leading the party into enormous debt ahead of the 2012 presidential election, he disputed Steele's claims the RNC had sent that money to the states.

"In the previous two non-presidential cycles, the RNC carried over $4.8 million and $3.1 million respectively in cash reserve balances into the presidential cycles," Collins wrote in a letter to the RNC membership. "In stark contrast, we enter the 2012 presidential cycle with 100 percent of the RNC's $15 million in lines of credit tapped out, and unpaid bills likely to add millions to that debt."

You can read the full letter here, courtesy CNN. Meanwhile, the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza hears that Collins may be considering his own bid for RNC chairman.

(Photo of Steele: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)